David Rudolph, while working for the Detroit Pistons as a program coordinator in 1990s, started the PARK Program – the Partnership to Adopt and Renovate Parks for Kids.

It was an $8 million project to renovate Detroit parks.

“As a Detroiter, we deserve better,” Rudolph said in an email almost immediately after Bing’s announcement. “For those of us who try to do right, pay our taxes, take care of our property, respect each other in the community, this is a sad day. Our leaders have failed us, but more importantly we have long failed each other. Our leaders can do only so much the rest is on us as citizens to demand more from one another.”

Rudolph, a Detroit native who founded the public relations firm D. Ericson & Associates, said the situation robs families and children of places to play in a safe environment.

“There is an old saying, you ‘weep what you sow,” he said. “We all have a hand in this horrible situation. For more than 40 years we have planted bad seeds and now look at us standing blaming everyone except the person in the mirror. So sad!”

Bing rejected implications that the move is act of retaliation against City Council for killing the proposal.

"This is all fact based," Bing said. "...To try to constantly put me and this administration in a retaliatory mode against City Council is stupid. It makes no
sense. We need to work together... This is real. We have no choice. We don't have the money."